I always wonder who are these persons writing these articles and name themself "journalists". Its just the same as they are the speakers of an enterprise, the government , the authoroties in this country. That has nothing to do with journalism and as i worked 35 years in this field it more and more pi.. me off reading this brainless articles always!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Delusions become cause to avoid .

Please quit the propaganda with lives in the sky and aim for safe first

As I read the this in the OP, it is not Thai Airways who is doing the audit but the Star Alliance Association and they are not Thai.

well, Thailand aims to be the best in a lot of things like: Best democracy of Asia, most reputable Taxi drivers of Asia, safest roads of Asia, best English speakers of Asia....... sure they can get the "safest Airline of Asia" status too...... no doubt they deserve it. Don't forget, Thai people live in a reality of their own

And it's bad because??? should they aim to be the worse then??

It's an impossibility to become safer than an airline that never had a fatality

"The airline also planned to ask a third party - the same group that certified airline members of Star Alliance - to take part in safety audit at THAI."

Huh? THAI is a member of Star Alliance so wouldn't they have bee audited by the above mentioned group before joining??

THAI uses very old airliners. They would have to retire most of their fleet before they could even move off the bottom 20% of the safe list. Then they would need to address their maintenance and training deficits. Only a complete reboot would make a significant improvement to their safety rating. On top of that, they need to replace their management if they are going to turnaround the airline's financial health.

They are finally retiring most of their old fleet. Many new aircraft have entered their fleet since 2013 and old aircraft have been retired in recent years. That has resulted in a much younger fleet than in years past.

Off the top of my head:

Aircraft retirements:

747-400s: about half will be retired by the end of this year, with all of them gone in the next couple of years.

A300s: all retired back in 2013 I believe it was, and a few months earlier than initially planned.

A330s: older ones retired from fleet.

A340-500s: all retired but unable to be sold (due to lack of interest from buyers and too high asking prices. Reason for retirement was high fuel prices at the time).

A340-600s: to be retired this year.

B737-400s: apparently all retired, but still showing up on timetables for some destinations for some reason.

New aircraft added to the fleet:

B787s: 4 aircraft since last year and more options

A380s: 6 aircraft since 2013?

A350s: to be added starting this year I believe

A320s: numerous aircraft added since 2012, all were initially destined for THAI Smile but most have now been added to the THAI mainline fleet.

OK, so THAI has some pretty mismatched management and it keeps changing things (like ordering aircraft for THAI Smile but then adding them to it's own fleet). But at least it is renewing it's fleet.

Are they suggesting that their safety standards aren't aimed at being the safest?